


Born to Die

by creatureofhobbit



Category: The Vampire Diaries (TV)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-05
Updated: 2015-02-05
Packaged: 2018-03-10 13:26:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,827
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3291944
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/creatureofhobbit/pseuds/creatureofhobbit
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Luke struggles with his destiny and his growing knowledge that he would be the one to defeat Liv in the merge.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Born to Die

_The Gemini Coven was founded in the year 991 BC, by twins Samuel and Isaac, at the age of eighteen years. For a time, the twins ruled their coven in harmony. However, as time went by, a rift began to develop between the two. Samuel, the elder of the two, believed himself to be the most powerful twin. Isaac tired of his brother’s tyrannical rule and desired to seize the power for himself. Eventually, in order to restore harmony to the coven, the elder members devised a plan: Samuel and Isaac were to merge their powers. Whichever twin survived was clearly the more powerful twin and would go on to lead the coven._

_And so it came to pass that on their twenty-second birthday, Samuel and Isaac merged their powers. And it turned out that unbeknown to Samuel, Isaac had powers of his own which allowed him to become the victor. Freed of Samuel’s rule, the coven began to flourish under Isaac. And it was decreed that from then on, the ruler of the Gemini Coven would be chosen as a result of a merge between twins in the founding family._

Luke couldn’t remember a time when he and Liv had been unaware of the legend of the founding of the Gemini Coven. He had always known that he and Liv had been created to save the Gemini Coven from the unsuitable rule of his brother Kai, which his parents had feared would be the outcome of any merge between him and his twin Jo.

He had always known that one day, the fate of Samuel and Isaac would be his and Liv’s.

He had always known that one of them was born to die.

 

They’d been on a family holiday to Atlanta one time when some woman who was staying in the same hotel as them had latched on to them and started chatting, despite their father’s best attempts to rebuff her. At one point, she had asked how old the children were. Liv had just glared at her, but Luke had muttered “Eight. We’re twins.”

“Oh, bless your hearts!” the woman had exclaimed. “So you two have always got a built in friend, who’ll be with you throughout your lives!”

She hadn’t known what to make of it when Liv had immediately run from the room. Luke had glanced at his father for a moment before his father had told him he could go after her. They had a lot of that kind of thing when anyone found out they were twins, and usually they’d just smiled and nodded until the person had gone or moved on to something else. Luke had asked Liv afterwards why she’d been so much more upset by it that time, and Liv had said that it was because she’d had the nightmare about Kai again the night before. 

Luke felt ashamed that he hadn’t known that Liv sometimes still had nightmares about what happened with Kai. No one talked about him any more. He was trapped in his prison in 1994, he shouldn’t be able to get to them now. But Liv obviously still dreamed that he could, and Luke should have known that.

“If you dream about him again, Liv, come and wake me. I’ll protect you from him.”

 

Of course, Luke knew that he couldn’t always protect Liv from everything.

He’d asked his father once what would happen if the twins didn’t merge, and his father had replied “You know the rules, Lucas. There has to be a merge between a set of twins.”

“But what if there weren’t any twins in the family?” Luke had continued, and Joshua Parker had replied “If there were no twins to merge, then the Gemini Coven would lose all its power altogether. The entire bloodline would cease to exist; the coven will die. What is one life compared to all of the coven? It is fortunate that twins run in our family, and that situation has never occurred.”

“Were you scared?” Luke whispered. “When you merged with Uncle Joseph.”

“I knew it was what I had to do. There is no room for fear in the Gemini Coven.” Joshua had picked up his newspaper at that point, making it clear to Luke that the conversation was over. Luke suspected his father must have been scared in the days leading up to the merge. He’d have to have been. He wouldn’t be human if he wasn’t. But Luke also knew that Joshua would never admit that. He’d done what had to be done at the time, and one day Luke would have to do the same, for the sake of the coven.

He wasn’t going to ask his father whether he ever missed Uncle Joseph, or whether he ever felt guilty that he was the one to survive. It was clear that his father would never tell Luke, even if he did. 

But Luke knew that a long life without Liv stretched out before him, a life where he would have to live every day with the guilt at taking her life. For he knew even from that early age that he was the stronger of the two, understood it every day as they practised their spells and he mastered them faster than Liv did. But Luke always made sure he helped Liv with hers, in order to give her a fighting chance instead of taking advantage of his own strength at magic to ensure he was victorious in the merge that he knew they must undertake.

Liv had asked him once whether he really believed that the Gemini coven would die out if a merge did not take place, or whether he thought it was just some scare story told throughout the years to ensure the compliance of the various sets of twins. Luke just said he didn’t know and left it at that. He understood by then how much Liv feared the merge and would have clung on to any loophole which would have allowed her to escape it. 

And yes, sometimes Luke wondered what it would be like to lead a normal life without any magic powers. Long after that conversation, he had talked about this with Tyler, who was beginning to readjust to his human life after having lived first as a werewolf and then a hybrid, and Matt, determined to remain merely a human as all those around him found themselves leading a supernatural life. But at that point, Luke did not believe it was possible. Jo had rid herself of her magic and none of the family even knew where she was now; Kai was trapped in his 1994 prison and no one had any reason at that time to believe that that was ever going to change. It was down to them now; it was their duty to merge to ensure the coven survived.

He could have taken matters into his own hands before it ever got that far. When Liv was performing the resurrection spell, Luke could have made the choice not to return, yet he knew he could never find peace as long as there was a chance that the old legend was true and his death before the age of 22 meant that the coven would die out and he wouldn’t be saving Liv anyway. Then when it was clear that Liv was struggling with the spell, it hadn’t occurred to him at the time that he could step aside, let it kill her thus removing the merge problem. She was his twin, she was the other half of him, there was no way he could do that. Liv looked at him then, and he knew she understood that she would not win in the merge. And Luke started wondering for the first time whether there was any other way, whether both twins could be saved.

They’d skated around the subject so many times without really addressing it; when Damon Salvatore had died as a result of Luke’s stopping the spell, Luke had struggled with his guilt then. And this was about someone he wasn’t even really friends with; he knew that it would be so much worse when it was his sister. Liv had thought it was crazy when he’d offered Elena the herbs that would make her imagine that Damon was still with her. But his guilt had made him continue supplying them, and he hadn’t realised why it bothered her so much until the day she asked “Is that what you’re going to do after the merge, Luke? Take that crap and imagine I’m still here?” Luke hadn’t thought of it from that point of view before. Liv then seemed to realise what she had said and started trying to see it more from his side after that; Luke knew she had defended him to Tyler over it. 

Then after that guy ran out in front of Tyler’s car and Liv put him out of his misery so that Tyler wouldn’t trigger his curse, Luke could see how much she was struggling with that, although she wouldn’t admit that even to him until the day she came home upset because Tyler had made a stupid joke about how he’d rather turn than wear the suit he’d had to wear to help Liv at the function. Liv had said something about how she’d finally understood how Luke had felt after Damon died, and how she should probably get used to it because she’d only feel it a hundred times worse after the merge if she won.

Their father’s words from long ago reverberated in Luke’s head. _What is one life compared to all of the coven?_ He understood the truth of them now in a way he had not at the time. If he allowed Jo and Kai to merge, he knew that Kai would win, and that it would be disastrous for the coven if Kai were allowed to become leader. He and Liv had been born to avoid exactly that. And if his and Liv’s refusal to merge led to no merge taking place at all, it would spell the end for the coven. They had to merge. There was no other way. Who knew, maybe he’d underestimated Liv. Maybe she could win. There was a part of him that hoped that she would.

But it was easier to tell himself that back when their 22nd birthday still felt far away. Now that it was upon them, Luke knew he couldn’t go through with letting his sister die. Merging with Kai himself was a long shot, but Luke had to try it. Who knew, maybe he would win after all. And if not, well, the family had kept Kai under control once, who was to say that the combined magic of the Gemini coven couldn’t do so again.

It was a risk. But he had to take it. Liv was not going to die at his hands.


End file.
